20 години печелим заедно
The Pacific Exchange (PCX) often was ahead of its time and, if its history is any harbinger of things to come, there could well be more consolidation in the U.S. trade execution business.
The PCX’s first incarnation was the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange, created in 1882. Although the California gold rush was already over by then, mining was booming in the young state and required an organized capital market to finance its development.
Nineteen brokers decided to organize the exchange “to maintain a free and open market where the investor could convert his cash into securities and its securities into cash at will, at a fair and honest price.”
Similarly, the California oil boom prompted the creation of the Los Angeles Oil Exchange in 1899. The two exchanges merged in 1957 to create the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, the only market with two floors in two cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1973, the exchange dropped the word “coast” from its name and added options trading to its San Francisco floor in 1976, with a focus on technology issues.
Always eager to embrace changes, the exchange renamed itself the Pacific Exchange in 1997. Two years later, it reorganized into PCX Equities, the first for-profit U.S. stock market.
This paved the way for an innovative partnership with Archipelago Holdings, the parent of one of the first four ECNs. The SEC approved Archipelago as the electronic equity trading facility of the PCX in October 2001, leading to the closure of Los Angeles equity floor and the launch of the all-electronic ArcaEx exchange.
Besides providing regulatory services to ArcaEx, the PCX continued to run its options business but quickly embraced the notion of a hybrid market. To that effect, it built PCX Plus, which allows options market-makers to trade from its floor or remotely.
On January 3, 2005, Archipelago Holdings announced it was acquiring PCX Holdings, with the goal to turn ArcaEx into the first U.S. exchange to offer electronic trading of both equities and options. Archipelago also acquired the PCX’s self-regulatory business, which will make ArcaEx the first ECN to evolve into a full-fledged exchange.
Other regional exchanges have embraced technology to various degrees to chart their future. The Cincinnati Stock Exchange, founded in 1885, closed its floor and went electronic nearly in 1980. It is now known as the National Stock Exchange. The Boston Stock Exchange, launched in 1830, is a founding member of the all-electronic Boston Options Exchange. The Chicago Stock Exchange, formerly set up in 1882, absorbed several of its competitors in St. Louis, Cleveland, Minneapolis and even New Orleans over the years and is embracing auto-execution.